In case you needed a reminder about how big our solar system is, astronomers just discovered a new dwarf planet nine and a half billion miles away from the sun. The object, currently known as V774104, is a little less than half of Pluto’s size and two to three times farther away. The details of its orbit are still unclear, since the finding is so new. But it’s part of a larger effort to survey outer solar system objects beyond the Kuiper Belt using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii.
The team behind the discovery are looking for objects far enough away from the gravitational pull of the inner planets—objects with weird, eccentric orbits that can’t be explained by current models—to determine what forces lurking in the dark of space shaped them.
